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. SPEECH 



GEN. A. J. HAMILTON, 



OF TEXAS. 



ilETING AT PANEUIL HALL, 



Saturday Evening, April 18, 1863. 





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SPEECH . 

if 



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GEN. A. J. HAMILTON, 



OF TEXAS, 



WAE MEETING AT FANEUIL HALL, 



Saturday Evening, April 18, 1863. 



PHONOGRAPHIC REPORT BY J. M. W. YERRINTON. 



^nblisljeb bg Spttial |[iquest. 



BOSTON: 

PRESS OF T. R. MARVIN & SON, 42 CONGRESS STREET. 
1863. 



.3 



SPEECH. 



Ladies and Gentlemen of the City of Boston : 

At the instance of some of your fellow-citizens, 
I have consented to detain you briefly, this evening, 
upon the subject of the existing war in our country. 
It is the subject now engrossing the attention of 
every lover of the country, and all minds are more 
or less engaged in the inquiries pertinent to the 
existence of such a state of things in our country. 
Among other questions are these : How is the 
Rebellion to be dealt with ? Will our Government 
succeed in its effort to crush it out '? What will 
the result be to us, and to the rebellious States, if 
the Government should fail to suppress the rebel- 
lion 1 What was the cause, or causes, of the 
rebellion ; and among the causes, which were the 
most prominent 1 It is but natural, I say, that 
these questions should be asked ; it is also proper, 
that if there be those who can answer them, or 
any of them, they should be answered. And it is 
first, perhaps, the duty of every citizen, before 
determining in his own mind what the result of 
the eff"ort on the part of the rebels is to be, to 
satisfy his mind as to the cause of the rebellion. 



I have long since satisfied my mind upon the 
subject. Indeed, 1 was satisfied as to the causes 
which were leading in that direction before the 
rebellion commenced. I may not be able to satisfy 
you ; I am sure I shall not be able, on this occasion, 
to present to you the evidences that I have had 
which have brought me to a conclusion upon this 
subject. Time will not permit me to deal with 
them, if I could remember them all. Let it suffice 
that I announce to you here, to-night, that if any 
of you believe that it was on account of the con- 
viction, on the part of those who are engaged in 
the rebellion, that the Government of the United 
States, or the people of the United States, or any 
portion of them, had determined to make war 
upon the institution of slavery, you are deceived, 
and have been deceived. If you believe that it 
was in consequence of the conviction resting upon 
the minds of the people of the South, or any 
respectable portion of the people of the South, 
that there was a spirit abroad at the North which 
was at war with the institution of slavery, to the 
extent that it would not permit you to do justice 
to them, that had led you to the determination not 
to permit the people of the South to be at peace 
with you, because of the existence of that institution 
among the people of the South, again you have 
been deceived. And, least of all, was it that the 
people of the South had any right to complain of 
the Government of the United States, so far as its 
action on the slavery question was concerned, or 
that they dreaded any hostile action on the part 



of such Government to that institution, at any 
future period of time. 

I know that these were the arguments used in 
the South, and so do you ; but if I had not had 
cause to believe that these were not the real motives 
that prompted to the rebellion, long before it 
occurred, I should be at no loss now to determine 
that these were mere pretexts to be used at the 
South ; because the leaders in the rebellion do not 
permit you or I to remain any longer in doubt. 
They tell you and I, and they tell the civilized 
world, that it was not because of any injustice they 
had suffered at your hands, or at the hands of the 
Government, on account of the institution of 
slavery, that they determined to separate from you 
and establish a new government. On every hand, 
the evidences are now being furnished to you, and 
to everybody, through their public men at home 
and through their public agents abroad, and through 
the medium of the Southern press, that these were 
not the causes at all ; that they were simply the 
pretexts used, as all men every where who engage 
in the work of overthrowing a government, and 
especially a liberal government, have to engage 
in it under the pretext that their object is the 
security and perpetuity of the liberties and institu- 
tions of the people. 

If they were to disclose, at the outset of an 
undertaking like this, the real object, that it is to 
overthrow the Government and substitute in its 
place one less liberal, the declaration, as a matter 
of course, would defeat the very purpose in view. 



But they tell you, as they have told the people 
of the South, that although they used all these 
arguments for the purpose of inflaming their 
minds, and inducing them to aid in the rebellion, 
the real motive was because they (meaning the 
few, who do the thinking for the many) had 
learned from Mr. Calhoun, more than thirty years 
ago, and from his immediate disciples since, that 
there was a natural antagonism between slavery 
and free government that would ultimately compel 
one or the other to go to the wall. 

They tell you now, vauntingly, that the great 
New York statesman must not claim the credit of 
first discovering that there was an " irrepressible 
conflict" between free and slave labor. They say 
they knew it, and had long understood it, before 
he uttered it. They say, in so many words, that 
their cause of quarrel was not because you had 
to prevent the operation of the Fugitive Slave Law 
wronged them by legislation, having for its object 
in the States where slavery does not exist, though 
this was one of the arguments urged upon the 
people of the South. They say it was not because 
you denied, any of you, the right of the people of 
the South to inhabit, equally with you, the territo- 
ries of the Union ; that it was not because you 
claimed for Congress the constitutional power to 
prohibit slavery in the territories. They say they 
knew well that they never could inhabit those 
territories with their negroes, under any circum- 
stances, because the climate and soil were such 
that slave labor could not be made profitable. 



They say it was not because you claimed for Con- 
gress the power to abolish slavery in the District 
of Columbia ; but they say it was in truth because 
they felt profoundly convinced of the fact, that the 
natural antagonism between free and slave labor, 
of which I have already spoken, would in the end, 
without any design on your part, have the effect to 
crush slavery out. 

They go on to argue in this way : — " We quarrel 
with the people of the North, if quarrel you can 
call it, because they constitute a Democracy. The 
organization of society there is different from what 
it is in the South. The people of the North are a 
Democracy, because all men there are free, and all 
participate in the government alike — all are equal 
under the laws. It is also true that a majority of 
the people of the North are laboring men, and that 
being true, it requires no argument to establish the 
third position, and that is, that the government at 
the North is in the hands of the laboring class. 
Our theory at the South is," they say, " that all 
labor, to be safe, to be conservative, so far as the 
perpetuity of government is concerned, and at the 
same time profitable to society, must be controlled, 
must be owned. We believe, also, that where 
government is in the hands of the majority of 
the people who are laborers, it cannot be stable 
and lasting — that it will run into anarchy ; hence 
we have cut loose from the North, because they are 
a Democratic people, because the Government of 
the Northern States is eminently Democratic. We 
are not willing to trust the existence of slavery in 



8 

a union with this great democratic element, because 
we are convinced that it cannot survive in contact 
with that democratic element." 

This, I say, is the popular doctrine at the South, 
to-day. No sooner had the revolution been accom- 
plished— (when I say accomplished, I mean to the 
extent of the organization of a Government, and 
putting its machinery in full operation, an army 
organized and in the field, and the masses of the 
people disarmed and in the power of the revolu- 
tionary party)— no sooner, I say, had this been 
accomplished, than this doctrine was broadly enun- 
ciated ; first, perhaps, publicly, in an elaborate 
letter to the Charleston Mercury, written by Mr. 
Spratt, of South Carolina, who participated as 
largely as any man in that State in this revolution, 
to Mr. Perkins, of Louisiana, who was a member 
of the first provisional Congress, as they called it, 
of the Confederate States. In that letter, Mr. 
Spratt used all these arguments to which I have 
referred, and then said: "To sum it all up, you 
know, as well as I, that these were the lessons with 
which Mr. Calhoun and all the great teachers 
educated the public mind of the South preparatory 
to the very step we have now taken. You know, 
quite as well as I, that the pretexts we used to 
inflame the public mind were necessary to be used, 
because we dare not, in preparing for this revolu- 
tion, announce our real object, which would have 
been defeated if it had been understood ; but now 
that it is accomplished, we may speak plainly to 
each other, and you or I ought to be ashamed of 



any Southern statesman who will pretend, now, 
that it was because of any subject of quarrel 
relating to slavery in the Congress of the United 
States in years past — any that we have been in 
the habit of alleging as the cause,' through the 
public press of the South, or as leaders of the 
political sentiment of the South. It is proper, 
now, that we should drop all disguise, and assert 
the deliberate purpose we have in view, which is 
the organization of a government of a totally differ- 
ent character from that of the United States, from 
which we have just sundered ourselves. We design 
to establish a government where the democratic 
principle will not control. To that end, we have 
cut loose from the North ; but still, we have not 
accomplished the full work. Here, in our midst, 
there is a strong democratic element left. You 
have not, so far, in the convention at the South, 
been true to the interests and objects of those who 
inaugurated the revolution. "We expect you at 
once to organize a government upon a different 
principle from that of the government from which 
we have just severed ourselves. We expect you to 
limit the right of suffrage, and confine it to the 
hands of the men who control and direct the labor 
of the country, because, (to use his own language,) 
among the people from whom we have separated, 
the government is in the heels of society, because 
it is in the laboring class ; we intend to place it in 
the head of society, where it ought to be — in the 
hands of the men who direct the labor ; and we 
will accomplish that object, although it may involve 



10 

the necessity of another revolution in the South, 
and although that other revolution may be bloodier 
than the one in which we are now engaged. Yet 
we will have it ; and in that last revolution, we 
will get rid of the last remnants of democracy, and 
we will have what we intended in the outset, a 
slave aristocracy." 

It is admitted in that letter, as all the public 
presses of the South now admit, that the principle 
is not only true in respect to African labor, but to 
all labor, everywhere ; that it ought to be owned 
and absolutely controlled by the few ; that, in short, 
the laboring class ought to be mere beasts of bur- 
den, " hewers of wood and drawers of water,'' 
having no business to participate in government, 
and that it is a foolish thing to undertake to 
elevate men above the condition in which Provi- 
dence has placed them. 

If you need further evidence, take the only 

political periodical published in the South for the 

ten years previous to the commencement of the 

rebellion, De Boivs Revieiv ; a periodical that was 

in the hands of every planter and slave-holder in 

the South, and which had advocated, for five years 

preceding the rebellion, these very doctrines, and 

strongly attacked the principle of democracy in 

government, and argued for the substitution, in the 

place of that, of the power of the few over the 

many. I repeat, that that Review was in the hands 

of almost every slave-holder in the South. It was 

the political text-book among that class, but was 

scarcely ever found in the hands of any man not 

of that class. 



11 



Such have been the teachings of the few who 
have been prepanng the public mind of the South 
for a series of years past. Is it necessary to refer 
you to what was disclosed in the letter of Mr. 
Yancey, that was made public by accident a few 
years ago, where he deliberately said (not expecting 
the letter would be published so soon) that the 
object of the Southern leaders was " to instruct the 
public mind and fire the Southern heart, so that, 
availing themselves of some favorable moment, and 
using some plausible pretext, the Cotton States 
might be precipitated into revolution ?' That was 
his declaration ; and no scheme for the overthrow 
of government, no conspiracy ever organized in 
the history of the world, was ever carried out 
more successfully than this has been, so far. 

In order to accomplish this object, the people of 
the South, as a matter of course, had to be deluded. 
They were really, at heart, on the side of the Gov- 
ernment ; and I may add, their hearts are really, 
this night, with . the Government of the United 
States (applause) ; but they were made to believe, 
very many of them, that they had been wronged, 
or, if not they, their neighbors, the slave-holders 
of the South, had really been wronged and greatly 
wronged. It will not be inappropriate to refer 
briefly to the past history of the country, by way 
of determining how far it is true, as it has been so 
often charged in the South for years past, that the 
people of the North have really been aggressive in 
their spirit towards this institution in the South. 

I believe that the first great trouble which 



12 



occurred in the National Congress, upon this slavery 
question, happened in 1820, on the application of 
Missouri to be taken into the Union as one of the 
States. She had provided for the existence of 
slavery in her constitution, and there were those in 
Congress who did not believe, as the fathers of the 
government did not believe, that it was a good 
institution. They believed that the framers of the 
Constitution, while they permitted the existence of 
slavery, still did it in such form, and imder such 
circumstances, that those who attempted to follow 
the lead of the great men engaged in that work 
might well be justified, under the Constitution and 
in their own consciences, in resisting any further 
spread of the institution of slavery. But, it was 
insisted on the other hand, that Missouri had a 
right to admission, without reference to that feature 
in her constitution. It was said, that provision 
had been made in the Federal Constitution for the 
introduction of new States. It was replied, that 
that was true, but there was a condition annexed 
to that exercise of power by Congress, and that 
was, that the form of government of the States 
seeking admission must be Hepublican, and it was 
not strictly Eepublican if the institution of slavery 
was provided for. To that it was replied, that the 
argument could not be sound, because States had 
been admitted with the institution of slavery since 
the adoption of the Federal Constitution. 

The quarrel waxed warm ; but at last, in the 
interest of the slave-owners of the South, it was 
provided, by way of settling the difficulty, that 



13 



thereafter, in all territory north of 36° 30' north 
latitude, slavery, or involuntary servitude, except 
for crime, should never be permitted ; but south of 
that line, it might or might not exist, as the people 
of the territory should determine for themselves, 
when they came to organize a State government. 
It was said then by the South, and the declaration 
was repeated for thirty years, " That is all wc 
desire. North of that line, it can never exist, 
because it can never be profitable ; south of that 
line, it is admitted that we may have slavery, if 
the majority of the people who come together for 
the purpose of framing a State constitution desire 
the institution." Was this treating the South with 
less than friendship "? If concession is implied by 
that compromise, who were the parties making the 
concession, and for whose benefit was it made '? 

All was peace for a long time ; but after awhile 
the country was disturbed again because there were 
parties at the North who thought they had a right 
to petition Congress to abolish slavery in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, and it was instantly asserted by 
the Southern leaders, Mr. Calhoun at their head, 
that Congress had no right to receive such petitions. 
And why 1 No one denied the fact, that under the 
Constitution the people have a right peaceably to 
assemble and petition the Government for a redress 
of grievances. But it was said, this petition asks 
Congress to do an unconstitutional thing. It was 
replied — and be it said, to the eternal honor of 
the " old man eloquent," that, among the great 
actions of his life, he stood forth and took this 



14 



ground (applause) — " I do not stop to inquire 
whether what is asked of Congress is within its 
power or not. I demand that the constitutional 
right of the people to petition Congress for redress 
of what they conceive to be a grievance shall be 
respected. When you receive the petition, you can 
do what you choose with it ; you can lay it upon 
the table, or make such other disposition of it as 
in the wisdom of the majority of this body may 
seem meet. But you do commit an infraction of 
the Constitution, when you deny the right of 
petition. It is their right to petition, and their 
right to judge whether what they petition for is a 
thing that can be done by Congress. When you 
have received it, it is for you to judge whether you 
can do the thing you are asked to do ; but, at all 
events, you must receive the petition." The history 
of the country records how that controversy ended. 
It is enough to say, that it did not end contrary to 
the wishes of the people of the South. Those 
petitions "svere for a long while excluded from both 
branches of Congress. 

But soon there was a more serious difficulty 
than these. Texas was acquired. And under what 
circumstances 1 1 believe it is a part of the his- 
tory of the time, that the party which elected James 
K. Polk to the Presidency urged his claims mainly 
upon the ground that he was in favor of the annex- 
ation of Texas, while the opposing candidate had, 
in a published letter, said to the world that he did 
not think it proper, under the circumstances, that 
Texas should be admitted. The parties advocating 



15 



the claims of Mr. Polk all urged his election upon 
the ground that it was well known that Texas was 
in such a condition that, if the United States Gov- 
ernment did not come to her relief by making her 
part and parcel of the United States, she must of 
necessity fall under the protection of France or 
England, both of whom were skillfully manoeuver- 
ing for that object, and offering any terms to the 
young and weak Eepublic that it might think 
proper to demand, and exacting but one condition, 
namely, the extinction of slavery within the Re- 
public of Texas. It was urged throughout the 
South, I repeat, that it-was necessary to elect James 
K. Polk, in order to secure the annexation of 
Texas, to the end that more slave territory might 
be annexed to the country, and thus the institution 
be more securely protected where it already existed ; 
because, if the Republic of Texas fell under the 
guardianship of either France or England, with 
the institution annihilated, we of the South would 
have to meet not only whatever opposition existed 
in the Xorth to the institution of slavery, but the 
more active and deadly hostility of a foreign power. 
In the election of James K. Polk, and the annexa- 
tion of Texas, if there was any concession made 
by any party to any xoarty, it was a concession made 
in the interests of slavery. 

When, in consequence of the war with Mexico, 
growing out of that annexation of Texas, addi- 
tional territory was acquired, there was again 
trouble. It became necessary to organize a gov- 
ernment for the people inhabiting that territory. 



16 



In 1850, California, part of the territory acquired 
from Mexico, suddenly presented herself one. morn- 
ing, (gold having heen discovered the evening 
before,) knocking at the doors of Congress for 
admission as a State. There was no question but 
there were people enough in that territory to entitle 
her to admission; there was no question of the 
necessity for the organization of a State, govern- 
ment ; but it was opposed in Congress, and why 1 
It is true, that Mr. Calhoun did not say, in his 
place in the American Senate, " I oppose the 
admission of California, because she has ignored 
the institution of slavery," but the whole world 
understood that that was the real cause of his 
opposition, and the opposition of all those who 
followed his lead in cither branch of Congress. 
It was said by him, " I oppose it, because the 
mode in which California has presented herself is 
irregular. There has been no Enabling Act passed 
by Congress, authorizing her to form a State con- 
stitution and present herself for admission." It 
was replied, " It is not necessary that that should 
be done. Other States have been admitted with- 
out Congress making any provision in the nature 
of an Enabling Act, as you call it, authorizing 
them to form a State government." It was further 
replied, that the Constitution of the United States 
does not prescribe the mode or manner of intro- 
ducing new States, or in what manner they shall 
make application for admission. The simple pro- 
vision is, that Congress may admit new States, 
and the only condition annexed to that is, that the 



17 



form of their government shall be Eepublican. 
It was further said, that there is no law upon the 
Statute-Book that prescribes the manner of the 
introduction of new States ; and further, that there 
is not one word in the Constitution of the United 
States as to how a Territorial government shall be 
organized, or how the transformation from a Terri- 
torial to a State government shall take place. 
But Mr. Calhoun replied, " The earlier and better 
precedent is the one that I demand that California 
shall follow. She ought to have procured from 
this Congress an Enabling Act authorizing her to 
form a State constitution, and make herself a State 
in the regular way." 

But that was not the only quarrel growing out 
of the territory acquired from Mexico, in conse- 
quence of the question of slavery. The question 
of the organization of the territories of New 
Mexico and Utah came up, and there was a party 
in the country which said, " Let us provide that 
slavery shall not exist in any of this territory em- 
braced within the territorial organizations." There 
were many reasons urged for this. Among others, 
it was said that there was a principle which, by 
custom and usage, had come to be public law, in 
modern times, that where territory was acquired, 
either by purchase or conquest, of a neighboring 
government, which territory was inhabited by people 
having laws for the security and control of society 
and for the protection of property and life and 
liberty, these laws, in the organization of a govern- 
ment for the people inhabiting such territory, were 



18 



to remain unchanged, except so far as they might 
be found to conflict with some law or usage of the 
Government acquiring such territory. It was said 
that it was well known that the Government of 
Mexico had in her organic law, in her Constitution, 
provided affirmatively that slavery should never 
exist in her territories. Hence slavery was pro- 
hibited in the territory of New Mexico when we 
acquired it, and that could not be said to be incon- 
sistent with any law, custom, or usage in the 
United States Government ; for although it has 
tolerated the existence of slavery in some States, it 
has also tolerated its prohibition in others. It 
simply has nothing to do with it. Hence it was 
said that, according to that principle or usage, 
which has ripened into public law, and by which 
all respectable governments in modern times square 
their conduct, we had no right to force slavery 
upon the people of New Mexico, or to do any 
thing else than to continue to the people still 
residing there, the same protection against this 
institution that we found existing there when we 
acquired the territory and population by purchase. 

There was another party which said that, whether 
this was so or not, Congress had power to deal with 
this subject, and provide for the non-existence of 
slavery in these territories. You all remember the 
efforts made by Mr. Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, to 
introduce that principle into those Acts. But it 
was resisted by those in the interest of the slave 
power in the South, who put themselves upon the 
doctrine first enunciated, I believe, or elaborated 



19 



in argument, by Lewis Cass, of Michigan, that 
Congress had no conceivable power over the 
subject of slavery in the States and Territories at 
all; it could neither legislate in favor of it, nor 
against it. They maintained that Congress had no 
constitutional authority over the subject whatever, 
but that the people inhabiting the Territories were 
of right the only people who could judge of the 
propriety of the existence or non-existence of slavery 
in such Territories. That doctrine was greedily 
caught at by the entire people of the South. They 
said, with one unanimous voice, " That is the 
correct doctrine. AVe have insisted always, when 
we resisted the presentation of petitions to Congress 
touching the question of slavery, that they ought 
not to be received, because they asked Congress to 
take action upon a subject over which the Consti- 
tution has given that department of the Govern- 
ment no possible power. We resist this proposition 
for the same reason. Congress has no conceivable 
power over the subject. It rests with the people 
inhabiting these Territories, as it rests with the 
people of the States which have been admitted into 
the Union since the adoption of the Federal Con- 
stitution, to determine that question for themselves ; 
and with that we are content." 

In 1848, the entire body of the Southern people, 
with almost perfect unanimity, did their utmost to 
elect Lewis Cass, President of the United States, 
upon that very principle ; urging it as the chief 
reason why he should be made President, that he 
had been the representative of the views of the 



20 



Southern people, in his exposition of the Constitu- 
tion, upon that very subject ; and they advocated 
his election against one of their own citizens. Gen. 
Taylor, who was himself a large slave-holder and 
planter at the South, because they did not know 
what his views were upon that subject. And in 
1850 that was still the doctrine of the people of 
the South ; and in obedience to what they claimed 
and demanded then, in the organization of those 
Territorial governments, a provision was incorpo- 
rated in the Acts, which all of you, gentlemen, 
remember, that the people of the Territories of 
New Mexico and Utah should have the right and 
power to legislate upon all subjects whatever, 
slavery included, subject alone to the Constitution 
of the United States. Again, I ask every intelli- 
gent man here, if there was any concession in this 
from either party to the other, or from either 
section to the other, was it not a concession in the 
interest of the slave power of the South 1 They 
received at the hands of Congress, at that time, all 
that they demanded upon that subject. Congress 
solemnly declared that the people of the Territories 
of New Mexico and Utah should determine for 
themselves whether slavery should or should not 
exist in their respective territories. 

That was not all. At the same time, the slave 
power of the South said, " While this subject of 
slavery is up, there is another matter that remains 
to be settled, and upon that we demand a conces- 
sion from the North. There is a provision in 
the Constitution of the United States which was 



21 



intended to compel the people of the North, when 
fugitives from labor at the South escape and gain 
a footing in the Northern States, to return them, 
upon the demand of those entitled to their labor. 
You, the people of the North, have not been in 
the habit of doing it. There is no law of Congress 
which is sufficiently protective in its provisions or 
certain in its remedies, and we demand that such a 
law shall be given to carry out this provision of 
the Constitution, for the security of the slave- 
holders of the South." I desire to know whether 
that was not conceded, and whether that session 
of Congress did not concede all they demanded 1 
The South boasted to all the world that she had 
extorted from the North all her demands upon the 
subject of slavery, and had secured a "finality" 
upon that subject. But how long did this " finality" 
continue ? 

It was but a short time before it was demanded 
in Congress that the Missouri Compromise, — the 
proviso contained in the Act admitting the State of 
Missouri which I have spoken of, passed in 1820, 
and under which the country had been at least 
comparatively at peace for thirty years, — should be 
repealed. It was said, in reply, " You have already 
a virtual repeal in those provisions in the Acts of 
Congress organizing the Territories of New Mexico 
and Utah, which confer upon the people of those 
Territories the right to determine the question of 
the existence or non-existence of slavery for them- 
selves, because these provisions are in conflict with 
the restriction contained in the Act admitting 



22 



Missouri." " We admit," replied the Southern 
men, " that that is a virtual repeal, but we want an 
affirmative declaration by Congress, made deliber- 
ately, in the face of the country and the world, that 
that restriction was unconstitutional." Many there 
were who said, " This is without any justification. 
There is no reason why you should complain of 
this Missouri restriction. You are not suffering by 
it. You admit that it is virtually repealed. You 
admit that you do not want to go north of the line 
of 36° 30' with your slaves. Why do you want to 
agitate the public mind by demanding the repeal of 
a law which is, in terms, in conflict with a later 
law r' "We want it," said the Southern men, 
" as an admission, on your part, that it was wrong 
in its inception. We want it to go to the entire 
country, that you believe that Congress has no 
power to legislate upon that subject." And again 
what they demanded was done. 

How long did that give peace 1 Kemember that 
in 1848 and 1850, Lewis Cass was almost deified 
by the South, because he said Congress had no 
power over the subject of slavery, one way or the 
other ; but that the people of the territories were 
the only people who could deal with it, and Con- 
gress must leave it to them to determine the ques- 
tion. But a little experience had been had, and 
I believe it has been generally conceded that 
experience is the best teacher. Kansas had been 
opened to settlement, and the South had suddenly 
waked up to the fact, that the people of the North 
could beat them in the race of populating the 



23 



South-western territories. Southern men did not 
want to go there with their slaves, as they would 
all say, when talking with each other ; but they said, 
" The population of the North is rapidly increas- 
ing, and their intelligent young men, wanting 
homes, will go out there and occupy the territory, 
and, with their education and their prejudices in 
favor of ' free soil and free men,' as they say, they 
will make them all free States. It will not do for 
us, therefore, to stand any longer upon the ground 
of ' Popular Sovereignty,' which we have so much 
lauded Mr. Lewis Cass for enunciating." 

I had been an elector of Mr. Buchanan — a thing 
which I have always regretted, but I cannot help it 
now — and I was met, when I declared my adhesion 
to the doctrine of Popular Sovereignty at the South, 
by the assertion that I was a heretic ; that I did 
not keep up with the march of mind at the South. 
" Do you not know," I was asked, " that if we 
accept any longer the doctrine of Popular Sov- 
ereignty, the people of the North will occupy the 
Territories, and they will all become Free States ]" 
I have not a doubt of it, — I said ; — but that does 
not change my idea of the correctness of the prin- 
ciple. You do not want to go there ; you admit 
you can't live there with your slaves. Has it come 
to this, that after having declared, for thirty odd 
years, that Congress has no power to deal with the 
subject o{ slavery, and after having followed for a 
number of years the lead of Mr. Cass and Mr. 
Douglas, and agreed with them that the people of 
the Territories ought to settle this matter, you are 



24 



now going to turn round, eat your own words, and 
say that they shall not settle it, for no better reason 
than that it will lose you all those Territories ? 
You will lose them anyhow, unless you are able to 
act the part of the dog in the manger, and I don't 
think you will have that power. The people have 
a right to say that they will not have slavery, if 
they do not want it, (applause,) and no man in 
the land has a right to dispute it. 

But was this all 1 Mark you, nobody at the 
South had said that Congress could legislate upon 
the subject of slavery ; they had said, from the 
beginning, that Congress could not legislate upon 
that subject. But how was it in the spring of 
1860, just before the assembling of the Charleston 
Convention ] They had not only progressed so 
fast in three or four years, that they had discovered 
that this popular sovereignty doctrine would not 
avail them, that this doctrine of non-intervention 
by Congress on the subject of slavery was not safe 
for them, but they had gone to the extent of learn- 
ing that Congress could legislate upon the subject, 
not to prohibit slavery, but to protect slavery in 
the Territories ; and they demanded of the great 
Democratic party of the country that they should 
incorporate that principle as one of the planks in 
the Democratic Platform, and demand of Congress 
the protection of slavery in all of the Territories 
of the Union. Not only that, but more-;- that they 
should incorporate a plank into that platform 
advocating a change of the Constitution of the 
United States, which would absolutely establish 



25 



slavery in all the Territories thereafter acquired by 
the Government. Now, they knew well that the 
Democratic party of the North would never accept 
their terms ; they knew well that what they de- 
manded was an outrage upon every principle of 
justice and every principle of decency. They did 
it deliberately, at that time, for the purpose of 
breaking u^ the Democratic party, because the 
conspiracy that had existed for years had ripened 
under the lead of Mr. Buchanan's administration, 
and was ready for the very thing that occurred 
before his term of office expired. 

It was with the deliberate purpose, I repeat, of 
breaking up the Democratic party, and of assisting, 
indirectly, the election of the Republican candidate, 
that that demand was made on the Charleston Con- 
vention. If there be any Democrat here to-night, 
I ask him if he could have dreamed, four years 
previous to that time, that the Democratic party of 
the South, if they were really in earnest in what they 
had preached and demanded of the country, would 
go the length of demanding such terms as these 1 
But they were demanded, and you were deliberately 
told, at that time, that if they could not succeed in 
electing the man who consented to be their candi- 
date, against all the other parties, they would not 
live with you in National fellowship any longer. 
They threw down the gauntlet and said, " Now, 
after all the concessions you have made, after you 
have given up all we have demanded when the 
question has been raised in Congress, we demand 
of you that the Constitution of the United States 



26 



shall be changed, and that the whole policy of the 
Government shall be changed. We demand of 
you that you shall record it that we, as the Demo- 
cratic party of the South, have been in error, for 
thirty years, and that what we have been so per- 
sistently stating as the true and constitutional 
course to be pursued by Congress has been all 
wrong, and that our present demand is the only 
true mode of meeting the difficulty." 

Men who had been watching the course of that 
party in the South, for years, knew what this 
meant. They warned their fellow-citizens of the 
intention of those in the South who led the Demo- 
cratic party at that moment. It was said by many 
in the South, " This means revolution ; " but the 
great body of the people in the South did not 
realize the danger. They could not be made 
to believe that the men to whom, for a long 
series of years, they had given their confidence, 
could harbor in their hearts the design of get- 
ting up a conspiracy against the existence of the 
Government. Many of these men, who were 
thus deluded, believed that their leaders were 
wrong in their ideas, but that they were honest in 
their purposes. I was one of those who believed 
there was not a particle of honesty in them. They 
had, from time to time, made too many efforts to 
induce me to coalesce with them, and aid in carry- 
ing out what I believed to be their real object, for 
me to have any confidence in them ; and at last, 
knowing that I understood them, and would not 
join them, they thought an easy way to dispose of 



27 



me was by saying that I was an " abolition sympa- 
thizer." 

I say, then, that this is a conspiracy to overthrow 
Democratic Republican Government, not because 
that Government had ever wronged them, or be- 
cause the people of any portion of the country had 
ever outraged them, but because they had arrived at 
the conclusion that slavery, being in natural antag- 
onism to free government, could not successfully 
exist if free government was allowed to exist at the 
same time and under the same Constitution. The 
public press at the South, — the Richmond papers, 
the South Carolina, the Georgia, the Alabama 
papers, — all tell you now that this is the true prin- 
ciple of government, that all labor must be owned 
and controlled by capital. They say that this is not 
only true with respect to African labor — what they 
have called slave labor — but that it is equally true 
with respect to all labor ; and you are insultingly 
asked by one of the Richmond papers, — " What 
have you gained by free society and free labor ? 
We have asked you that question repeatedly, and 
you have never answered it. Your silence demon- 
strates that you have no answer to give ; and we 
tell you now, that the time is rapidly approaching 
when you will have to follow our example and 
change your form of government, so that all labor, 
even in your free society, shall be under an abso- 
lute control. The time will come when your labor- 
ing men and women, when misfortune has over- 
taken them in the pursuit of the primary object of 
life, or they have become old and broken down, 



28 



will have to be taken charge of by those who will 
feed and clothe them, and profit by their labor to 
the extent that they may be able to bear it." They 
say that is the true principle, and you must adopt 
it, or consent to run into anarchy. 

Every where, at the South, it is proclaimed 
among the slave-holders — and, by the way, they 
are the only men who have any power at the South 
now — that free society is a failure, that the Gov- 
ernment of the United States is a failure. They 
say that they discovered that it was to be so, and 
they are shaping their course to establish a govern- 
ment of a different character, which will represent 
property ; where the men who control and lead 
will be the men who own the property, who have 
an actual interest in the institutions of government. 
They say, " We are to form the government, direct, 
and administer it. All the laborers have to do is, 
to obey the laws made for them by the government. 
Our vocation and theirs is widely different." They 
tell you they have come to hate, absolutely and un- 
qualifiedly, every thing with the word "free" pre- 
fixed to it ; they hate the name of free society, free 
homes, free soil, and, most of all, free schools. 
They sneeringly ask you, " To what end are you 
educating your laboring class, in order to give them 
aspirations above their condition in life'? They 
will give you trouble if you educate them. They 
have no business to know any thing beyond their 
duty to labor. They are beasts of burden, ' hewers 
of wood and drawers of water.' You are wrong 
in undertaking to educate them, and you will learn 



29 



it in time, and will withhold education from them, 
as we do from our slaves, and a few thousands of 
you will pocket the proceeds of their labor, as we 
do the products of the labor of our slaves." 

That is the one principle of their government ; 
and since they have set up their confederacy, they 
have been crawling at the footstool of every des- 
potic power in Europe, begging for aid ; and doubt- 
less they have promised, some of them, at least, 
that if they will give them aid in establishing and 
perpetuating their government — I will not say 
their independence — they will conform to their 
wishes in any thing else save this question of 
slavery. Yet, to-night, there are throughout the 
entire country men who seem not to understand 
this ; who are determined to persist in regarding 
this revolution as an outburst on the part of a class 
of men who feel outraged by some act of the 
people or the Government. Now, if there are any 
such here, I desire to ask them a question. Have 
you ever heard a solitary man engaged in the 
rebellion, have you ever seen in any of the papers 
emanating from any department of their govern- 
ment, have you ever seen in any message of their 
President, any specific charge made against the 
Government of the United States of wrong done 
to the South, or any single human being ? [Voices, 
" No."] Have you ever heard it charged that that 
Government has been wanting in its duty to the 
South, or to any portion of the country ? Never, 
yet, and I will venture to say that, in all history, a 



30 



parallel cannot be found to the state of things that 
exists in this country at this hour. 

Here is a great revolution against a government 
that all mankind have been in the habit of declaring 
was one of the best, if not the best, ever established, 
allowing to its people the very largest liberty com- 
patible with the safety and well-being of society. 
If any criticism could be made at all, it was that 
too large a latitude was allowed. Such a govern- 
ment a revolutionary party has suddenly attempted 
to overthrow, without a solitary charge being pre- 
ferred by that party against that government which 
would justify the rebels, in the eyes of the civilized 
world, for attempting to overthrow it. I say, no 
parallel to this can be found in all history. In no 
instance has it ever happened that those engaged 
in a revolution could not point to one single act of 
wrong, on the part of the Government, the integ- 
rity of which they attacked. But so it is here. 
Still, there are those who persist in believing, that 
some portion of the people of the South have been 
wronged. In what way'? I have shown you it 
has not been by legislation. You can answer for 
yourselves the question whether you, as individuals 
or as a community, have ever deliberately wronged 
them. As for the balance, if wrong they have 
suffered, I take it you would like to be the recip- 
ients of such results as have followed that wrong 
to them ; for it is a fact that, within the last ten 
years, that species of property to which they are so 
devoted has increased in value one hundred per 



31 



cent. If they had been wronged, if the Govern- 
ment had been oppressive, if the spirit of the 
people had made that species of property unsafe, 
if it had caused the people of the South to feel 
that its future existence was not to be relied upon, 
how did it happen that that species of property 
increased so rapidly in value within the last ten 
years preceding the rebellion 1 No other species 
of property at the South increased in the same 
ratio ; none, I take it, among you. This property 
was as safe as it ever had been — nay, it was safer, 
because, during the last twenty years preceding 
the rebellion, the public mind of the South had 
changed upon the subject of the defensibility of 
slavery. 

I can remember well when it was the opinion of 
slave-holders throughout the South — at least as far 
as I had knowledge of them — that it was an evil 
to be deplored. Slave-holders denounced it every- 
where. At their social boards, at their public 
gatherings, wherever they conversed together, they 
were as free, at that time, to state their opinions 
upon that subject, as upon any other in the wide 
world. But for the ten years preceding the rebel- 
lion, no man dared utter such words. While the 
Constitution of the United States provided, as it 
does to-night, (and I meet you here in the unre- 
stricted enjoyment of that privilege,) that every man 
shall be protected in his liberty of conscience and 
right of speech ; and while the men of the South 
might go forth and labor to convince their fellow- 
citizens that the laws ought to be changed, so that 



32 



life should be taken for the most trivial cause, so 
that the most sacred relations of life, those of 
husband and wife, might be interfered with, or 
might advocate a change in the laws so as to direct 
the property of a citizen from his heirs, or even 
assert that the religion of the country should be 
changed, and a new one established, to which 
every man must bend his conscience, and no man 
would have thought of making any objection, it 
might have been said, " He is foolish to advocate 
such doctrines, but let him alone ; " — while, I say, 
these things could have been urged, if any man 
had undertaken to address his fellow-citizens en 
masse, as you are assembled here, to-night, or even 
at his own board had said to his friend, " I think 
the time will come when the system of slavery will 
bring trouble upon us," that simple remark would 
have cost him his life within an hour. If what 
Washington left in his last will and testament, if 
what Jefferson labored to impress upon the public 
mind of the country, if what Madison said in the 
convention that framed the Constitution of the 
United States, had been uttered by any man at the 
South within two years preceding the outbreak of 
the rebellion, he would have paid the penalty with 
his life at the hands of a mob. 

I say, the public mind had changed, and this 
section was ruled by a despotism such as has never 
been witnessed in any other portion of this country ; 
for I believe that is the only subject upon which 
the people have not exercised the right of speaking 
their sentiments. There are many present here, 



33 



to-night, who know, as I do, that during those 
years, citizens of Massachusetts have been rudely 
expelled from many of the Southern States, because 
they were not supposed to be loyal to the institution 
of slavery. Even your fair daughters, prepared at 
your public schools, so much despised at the South, 
to go down and teach our little daughters, have 
shared the same fate. But yet there are gentlemen 
here who still have a lingering belief that the 
people of the South have been wronged. If so, I 
beg some man to state in what way they have been 
wronged. I have been in the habit of saying, 
when men have alleged that we have suffered in 
our rights, that it was untrue. No man at the 
South has asserted that the Government or the 
people of the North have wronged him. Certainly, 
the trouble is not because of the loss of any slaves. 
I state here a fact that you may not all know, that 
for each of the ten years preceding the rebellion, 
Texas lost more slaves by their escaping to Mexico, 
than all the rest of the slave States lost by slaves 
escaping to the free States and to Her Majesty's 
dominions in Canada. But nobody thought of 
making war with Mexico on that account, or of 
undertaking to induce the people of Mexico to 
change their Constitution, so that a treaty of extra- 
dition might be made with us ; for be it said, to 
the eternal honor of poor, degraded, down-trodden 
Mexico, that not only has she provided, in her Con- 
stitution, against the existence of slavery, but 
against the adoption of any extradition treaty, for 
the return of fugitive slaves from other countries. 



34 



The conspiracy was ripe, however, and the blow 
had to fall. 

Now, in regard to the course of treatment that 
the Government has adopted up to this time. Is 
.it, in our judgment, the course that ought to be 
pursued in the future ^ What is it 1 It is insisted 
by some, that the way to put an end to this rebel- 
lion is not by making war upon the rebels. They 
are a long-injured people, it is said, and the way to 
reconcile the existing differences and remove the 
cause of this rebellion, is to suspend active hostili- 
ties, and present to them terms of compromise and 
concession. If there are those who believe there was 
reason for the rebellion, — that it was gotten up 
because of real or fancied wrong perpetrated by the 
Government, or the people of the non-slaveholding 
States, upon the people of the South, — then there 
may be some reason in the minds of such men for 
making that proposition. But I have attempted to 
show you that they are in error upon that subject ; 
and if you will not believe me, why will you not 
believe the leaders of the rebellion themselves ^ I 
think you ought to hold to the rule that governs in 
courts of justice, that the admissions of a party 
against himself, made in the exercise of all his 
faculties, and upon due notice given him, is to be 
received as the very highest evidence. Now, these 
men have told you, in every conceivable way ; their 
President has enunciated it in many of his State 
papers, (if they can be called by that name,) it has 
been enunciated in many resolutions of the rebel 
Congress, it has been proclaimed by their com- 



35 



rnanding generals in the field, and by their public 
agents abroad, in numerous instances, — that under 
no possible circumstances will they ever live with 
you in political fellowship again. There is but one 
condition, they say, on which they will consent to 
treat with you, with a view to the restoration of 
peace, and that is, the unconditional recognition 
of their independence of the Government of the 
United States. They tell you they will listen to 
no terms — they want none ; they spurn all your 
offers — they will not have them ; they will not talk 
to you upon the subject. 

But recently, when some of those in Xew York, 
who think, as perhaps some do here, that these 
people felt that they had cause to rebel, felt they 
were aggrieved, and believed that, that being so, 
there was a mode of conciliating them and com- 
promising this difficulty, by giving the people of 
the South additional guarantees, as they call it, for 
the future protection of their slave institution, per- 
formed a pilgrimage to Richmond, (that Mecca of 
the Confederacy,) to have an interview with Jef- 
ferson Davis upon that subject, I believe they came 
back " with a flea in their ear." (Laughter and 
applause.) They were told, " We will not consent 
to talk with you at all. We spurn your offers of 
peace and reconciliation. We despise you more 
than we do those who talk about crushing us with 
the strong arm of power. We spurn you, because 
you do not understand us. The men who advocate 
the war, and seek to crush us out, understand us. 
You come here and ask us to compromise ; we tell 



36 

you we will live with you upon no terms whatever. 
If you are tired of the war, and will acknowledge 
as much, and consent to our independence, then, if 
you want to come and talk with us about commer- 
cial relations, we will talk with you ; but we will 
hold our noses meanwhile." 

A moment's reflection will satisfy any man, that 
it is impossible to conciliate these men — the slave- 
holders of the South. "When I speak of slave- 
holders, I do not speak of the whole people of 
the South. From Avhat I have seen and know, 
I have been led to the conclusion that a vast 
majority of the people of the South are not only 
tired of the rebellion, but never did engage in it 
with their hearts. More than two-thirds — more 
than four-fifths, I believe — are to-night lifting their 
silent prayers to Almighty God for deliverance 
from their oppression, and for the restoration of the 
Government of the United States. (Applause.) 
They do not control the action of the Government 
of the South. They are, to-night, what the pro- 
moters of the rebellion and its leaders intended, in 
the beginning, to make them. They are subject to 
the worst despotism that now exists under heaven. 
They have no ability to act against it, and dare not 
utter a word against it, no matter what they suffer. 
And they are suffering all that any people on earth 
can suffer. 

How are you then going to end this war *? Will 
you go to these men and say, " You are doing an 
injury, not only to the Government, but to the 
whole people of this country and the world. You 



37 



have drenched the land in blood, and have filled 
it with grief and mourning. You have made 
thousands of widows, and countless thousands of 
orphans. You have plunged the entire people of 
one section of the country, from a condition 
of peace and happiness, into the very gulf of mis- 
ery, wretchedness and despair. All this you have 
done; but if you will lay down your arms, and 
acknowledge the authority of the constitution and 
the laws, this great Government will forgive you, so 
far as to release you from the penalty of treason." 
This would be an act, in the eyes of the civilized 
world, of great clemency and mercy on the part of 
the Government. But Jefferson Davis would say 
— as you would say, if placed in his position — 
" This is magnanimous on your part ; but if you 
will reflect upon it a moment, you will see that I 
cannot accept it. I have deliberately raised my 
arm against the United States Government, without 
alleging that that Government has ever harmed me, 
or any one living under the Confederate Govern- 
ment. No one of us has charged that the Gov- 
ernment of the United States ever wronged us. 
The whole civilized world knows that our object 
was to overthrow the Democratic Republic, and 
establish (in the language of my Vice President) a 
government, the corner-stone of which shall be 
slavery. The whole country understands now — 
the most ignorant in the Confederate States quite 
as well as the wisest — that the poor man is no 
longer to participate in the Government, as we 
have established it here. That is known by every 



38 



man, high and low. No man is ignorant of it now. 
You invite me to come back and live under the 
Government of the United States — under its con- 
stitution and laws. To what end 1 What will be 
my condition, if I consent to this ? How shall I 
be regarded, socially and politically'? What will 
be my prospects in life, and what my actual con- 
dition 1. If I go to Massachusetts, will the City of 
Boston, and her people, receive me with an ovation "? 
(A voice — ' No ! hang him.') Will they welcome 
me to their homes 1 Will the mothers of Massa- 
chusetts, whose sons I have caused to fill early 
graves, invite me to their hospitable boards, with 
my hands dripping with the blood of their chil- 
dren 1 If I present myself as a candidate for the 
Presidency of the United States, will the people of 
Massachusetts consider ray claims to that high and 
distinguished position 1 What will they say to me, 
and how will they treat me, if I come forward and 
claim their confidence and suffrages ? " Will you 
tell him he may return to Mississippi, and there, 
in the midst of the people of that State, who have 
in past years delighted to honor him, and have 
ao-ain and again clothed him with the robes of a 
Senator 1 He will reply : " Least of all dare I go 
back there. There may be a place under the 
United States Government where I would be tol- 
erated and allowed to live in peace, and drag out 
the remainder of a miserable life, but not in Mis- 
sissippi, where every home is a monument to my 
machinations against human liberty, and where 
thousands of widows and orphans, their homes 



39 



made desolate by my act, will look upon me with 
horror and detestation. I would not dare to go 
there, unless hedged about by your bayonets, 
almost as numerous as those you employ to crush 
my armies." He cannot expect any further honors 
from the people of his State, nor can any of the 
leaders in the rebellion ; and if they could, I appeal 
to the noble people of this State, if they would 
be willing that any citizen of Massachusetts should 
so dishonor himself and the old Bay State, as to 
take his seat in the Senate of the United States by 
the side of any of these men I 

Are we to tolerate the men who have done the 
harm that they have done 1 — who have given us all 
this trouble? — who have made us almost despair 
of Kepublican government '? Are we willing that 
these men shall be restored to their former posi- 
tion, to exercise the same power which they now 
avow they exercised for the purpose of consum- 
mating the rebellion against the Government, and 
tread it under foot, that they may be able to seize 
another opportunity to suppress free government '? 
I say, the people of this Government can never 
tolerate the leaders of this rebellion in high 
positions again. (Loud applause.) They may 
perform an act of justice and mercy by granting 
an amnesty to the people of the rebellious States. 
They may come back, and my word for it, they will 
never give you any more trouble, while the present 
generation lasts, at least ; least of all will they ever 
give you any trouble for the same cause that has 
produced this difficulty ; for really, the Union 



40 



people of the South, whether slaveholders or 
non-slaveholders, are to-night the very best and 
truest abolitionists that live on earth. (Loud 
applause.) 

It is charged by some of you here, in Boston, 
that the President has changed the object of the 
war, by making it, not an effort to suppress the 
rebellion, but to crush out African slavery. There 
is only a slight mistake in this. He has at last 
attempted to put the iron heel of the Government 
upon the cause of the rebellion, in order to crush it. 
(Applause.) It is said by some, however, that this 
is unconstitutional. I will not detain an intelligent 
audience, like this, long upon that point. I have 
been in the habit of believing, and do still believe, 
that it is a principle as old as government, a prin- 
ciple as universal as war, that the commanding- 
general of an army has the right to use every 
possible means to weaken his adversary and bring 
strength to himself. It does not matter what the 
form of government is, under which he acts. And, 
by the way, I want to make one remark about the 
power of this Government. Much is said about 
the constitutionality of this, that or the other act 
of the President or of Congress, and men really 
seem to believe that there is in this Government 
an absence of power such as does not exist in any 
other government. I will not stop now to tell you 
how I divide the powers of this Government be- 
tween the different departments ; but I want to 
say, that it has just the same power to protect 
itself, to suppress rebellion, to carry on war to 



41 



perpetuate its own existence, that any other gov- 
ernment under heaven has. (Applause.) Who 
ever believed that our fathers engaged in the 
pleasant pastime of forming a government that 
they hoped would last forever, and which should 
be able to protect itself against designing men, 
within and without, and afford a shelter to the 
lovers of freedom throughout all time, but neg- 
lected to give it all the powers for its own protec- 
tion that .any government might possess '? 

The President of the United States is Commander- 
in-chief of the army and navy. I say, that as such 
Commander-in-chief, he has the same right to dis- 
pose of the property of the public enemy, whether 
in the shape of a traitor who ought to be a loyal 
citizen, or an enemy belonging to any other govern- 
ment, that the commander-in-chief under any other 
government possesses, to dispose of the property of 
the public enemy of that government. Do you 
suppose that the power is wanting because of the 
particular species of property that the commander- 
in-chief seeks to dispossess the public enemy of? 
You may remember that the people of the South, 
in all their quarrels with the people of the North, 
have uniformly asserted, that with the single excep- 
tion of being counted — three-fifths of them — in 
making up the basis of representation, slaves are 
regarded as property by the Constitution, not as 
men. Well, then, if they are property, and if, as 
property, they are being used against the Govern- 
ment, if they are a source of strength to the enemy, 
has not the Commander-in-chief of your army and 

6 



42 



navy a right to dispossess the public enemy of that 
property ; and not only to dispossess them of it, 
but appropriate it himself, for the purpose of 
strengthening his Government in carrying on the 
war against them] 

It is said, however, that it may be true that the 
President has the right to deal with this property, 
so far as it belongs to rebels in the South, but 
there are loyal men in the South who own such 
property, also, and that he ought not, by a sweep- 
ing proclamation, make free all the slaves in a par- 
ticular district, without reference to the political 
complexion of their owners. Well, I have heard 
of no man in the South saying, " I am a loyal 
man, and own negroes ; I am included in one of 
the districts named in your proclamation, and I 
maintain that you have no right to take away my 
property." I would say to these objectors to the 
action of the President, (if there was no other 
ground on which to meet them,) that at least they 
ought to wait until the loyal men of the South 
complain of the action of the Government, and 
not make themselves so officious. (Applause.) I 
undertake to say, that the loyal men of the South 
will never complain of the action of the Govern- 
ment on this subject. With one unanimous voice 
be it said, to their credit, the loyal men of the 
South, slave-holders included, have solemnly re- 
solved in their hearts, that if ever again that terri- 
tory shall be recovered to the United States, slavery 
shall cease to exist ; or if it does exist, it will be 
against their solemn protest and action. 



43 



I take it, then, the President has the power, and 
he has exercised that power. Whether you believe 
it wise or not, whether you believe he had the 
power or not, whether you object to it out of 
sympathy for the slave-holders or not, whether you 
believe that slavery is the best condition for the 
African or not, the fiat has gone forth, and you 
have no power to help it. (Applause.) The 
President has the power, undeniably, in my judg- 
ment, and I believe the whole civilized world will 
endorse it when the war is over. The President 
has said, " By virtue of my position as Commander- 
in-chief, by virtue of the solemn Acts of Congress, 
if I wanted the power as Commander-in-chief, for 
the purpose of crushing this unholy rebellion, I 
announce to the world, that after the first day of 
January, 1863, all slaves held in certain States are 
free men." (Applause.) They may not be in the 
actual exercise of their freedom — I know they are 
not ; but from time to time, as our armies penetrate 
the region of country where slaves are congregated 
together in the largest numbers, they will come to 
the armies of the United States, and they will be 
practically free, as they are theoretically and legally 
free to-night. And I confess that one of the things 
I congratulate the country upon, is, that while the 
President had power to strike the shackles from 
the limbs of the slaves, and reduce the rebels to 
the last extremity by dispossessing them of this 
property, so valuable to them, neither he, nor 
Congress, nor any department of the Govern- 
ment, nor all of them together, has a right to 



44 



make a slave of one solitary freeman. (Prolonged 
applause.) 

I shall no doubt leave Boston under the charge 
of being an abolitionist. (Laughter.) I desire to 
say to this audience, and through them to the 
people of Massachusetts, that I have met very 
many respectable gentlemen in Massachusetts, and 
in other States of New England, who would agree 
with me about the cause of the rebellion, who 
would agree with me as to its injustice, its want of 
excuse, who would agree with me as to the mode 
of punishing the traitors — if they can be caught, 
let them be tried, convicted and executed (applause) 
— who would agree with me, that the United States 
Government is altogether correct in dealing as it 
has with the source of the rebellion, slavery, and 
declare that the issue of the President's Proclama- 
tion was all right: — many of them, indeed, would 
say it ought to have been issued sooner ; but 
who would close the conversation by saying, " I 
want you to understand, however, that I am not an 
abolitionist." 

I simply differ from all such men by saying, 
once for all, " I am an abolitionist." (Enthusiastic 
applause, followed by three cheers for General 
Hamilton.) I know no half-way ground in this 
controversy. If you do not like to see war made 
upon slavery, answer me then, you who object to this, 
if you can, why your Government made war upon 
slavery 1 What was it that made war upon your 
Government 1. If not slavery, what, then, was it 1 
I have been in the habit of telling slave-holders 



45 



this — "It was the Government of your fathers 
that gave the institution respectability at first ; it 
is all that has sustained it against the public senti- 
ment of the world, which has been opposed to it, 
and without the influence of this Government, it 
never could have breasted the storm of public 
sentiment for five years, at any period of its exist- 
ence. If, then, you throw off the protection of the 
Government, you may expect to see the institution 
die ; you will be used, in the hands of Providence, 
as the instruments to overthrow the very institution 
you wish most to cherish." Slavery did attack the 
Government ; it is seeking its life to-day ; and yet, 
in the minds of some, it is a monstrous thing that 
the Government is seeking the life of the institu- 
tion which has aimed a deadly blow at its own 
heart ! I accept the issue that is offered to us. It 
seems to me that you ought to accept it. They tell 
us there is a natural antagonism between slavery 
and free government. If that be true, can a free 
government tolerate slavery? [Voices — "No !"] 

I tell you, from my experience, that it leads to 
despotism ; and a despotism existed at the South 
long before the rebellion commenced. I want the 
institution to cease, not only because it is unjust to 
the slave, but I want it to cease, even more, I will 
say at the risk of being considered selfish, because 
I have long felt it to be a despotism over me, and I 
do not want it to be a despotism over my children. 
I, then, do dislike it — I hate it. I hate it, because 
it attacked free government ; I hate it, because it 
would not be at peace with free white men ; I hate it, 



46 



because it was jealous of the great democratic body of 
this free people ; I hate it, to-night, more than all, 
because those who are in its interest sneer at those 
who labor and a7'e performing the high behest of their 
Creator ; because in the sweat of their face they eat 
their daily bread. (Loud applause.) Because it 
would not tolerate free speech on my part ; because it 
would not leave me at peace tvith the friends of a life- 
time ; because it denied me the right to live at home ; 
because it exiled me from wife and children ; because 
it reveled in the blood of my neighbors ; because it has 
butchered fathers and husbands on their thresholds, 
in hundreds of instances, and driven out wives and 
children to the storms of winter, and applied the torch 
to their once peaceful homes, — because of these things, 
I hate it, and ought to hate it, and I will fight against 
it while God grants me life. (Loud applause.) I 
never would have lifted my arm against slavery, if 
it had not lifted its arm against me and against the 
Government I love. By that act, it placed me in a 
new relation to it ; and I am bound to use every 
effort to humble it in the dust and destroy it. You 
who are here, to-night, do you love slavery more 
than free government I If you do not, you, like 
me, are abolitionists, and ought to be no longer 
ashamed to own it. (Applause.) Remember that 
qualified adhesion to the Government is quasi trea- 
son. There is no middle ground. You must be 
on the side of the Government, for the purpose of 
sustaining it against every thing that seeks to de- 
stroy it, or you must give aid and succor to the foe 
that is seeking to crush it. 



47 



But there are other things in regard to which 
great complaint has been made of the President. 
It is said that he has violated your Constitution. I 
am not here to apologize for the President of the 
United States. I have to say, however, that if you 
will reflect upon the circumstances that surrounded 
him when he came to the office of President of the 
United States, and commenced the discharge of its 
arduous duties, you will agree with me that he 
cannot be expected wholly to have escaped mis- 
takes. At the time he was inducted into office, 
what was the condition of your country ? Under 
the preceding Administration, this rebellion had 
been matured. It is now known to every intelli- 
gent man — and I will say to those of you who 
may not have had the evidences brought to your 
minds, that they exist throughout the South, and 
to a great extent in Washington City — that the 
whole thing was matured under the last Adminis- 
tration. The President of the United States, elect- 
ed at a time of profound peace, by the dominant 
party, the great Democratic party — professing 
greater devotion to the institutions of free gov- 
ernment, vauntingly claiming a higher regard for 
the Constitution than any other party — saw this 
rebellion in progress. What was done to put it 
down, even after it was declared, that in the event 
of the election of Mr. Lincoln, the Southern States 
would secede ? The initiatory steps had been 
taken ; the leading presses of the South announced 
in the most formal manner, that secession was de- 
termined upon by the people of the South. 



48 



Now, it is true, as I have already said, that a 
majority of the people of the South did not engage 
in this movement ; but the leaders were active ; 
they were maturing their plans throughout the 
entire South and perfecting their organization, and 
they said, " If Mr. Lincoln is elected, we intend to 
go out of the Union." Mr. Buchanan was then 
President ; and he had gathered about him, to 
assist him in the administration of public affairs, 
long-tried democrats, — men who had long occupied 
high position in the South, — men who had won 
his confidence, and I suppose had the confidence 
of the great democratic party of the country. He 
had Howell Cobb, of Georgia, as Secretary of the 
Treasury ; Gov. Floyd, of Virginia, as Secretary of 
War ; Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi, as Secre- 
tary of the Interior ; and Isaac Toucey, of Con- 
necticut, as Secretary of the Navy. All these were 
men who had occupied distinguished positions 
before they were called to surround the President, 
and aid him in the administration of the Govern- 
ment, and they, as well as the President, knew 
what the leaders of the South meant. Those 
leaders were not hiding their light under a bushel. 
They did not pretend to the people of the South, 
or to the world, that they intended to secede 
because the institution of slavery was not safe 
under that administration ; they did not charge the 
Government with having done any thing of which 
they could complain ; but they charged that it was 
the intention of Abraham Lincoln, he being a sec- 
tional President, and elected by a sectional party, 



49 



to make war upon that institution ; and they said 
they could not afford to wait until his administra- 
tion had destroyed that great institution in the 
South, before they acted, but would take the in- 
itiative themselves. 

Now, what was the duty of your President — 
you who talk so much about your Democracy, 
to-day ■? I claim, myself, to have been a Democrat, 
when Democracy was respectable (laughter and 
applause) ; and I say that, in an enlarged sense, the 
Government of the United States is Democratic, 
because it is struggling to perpetuate the Demo- 
cratic principle, against a party that is seeking to 
put it down. What had been done by that admin- 
istration ] At a time of profound peace and unex- 
ampled prosperity throughout the country, the 
finances of the Government had been so manajred 
that, at the opening of the last session of the 
Thirty-sixth Congress, no member could draw a 
dollar of mileage or salary, and many of them, like 
your humble speaker, went about for a month, de- 
pendent on the people of the city of Washington, 
before they could draw a dollar from the treasury. 
Your Secretary of War had so managed, that all 
the available arms had been sent South, where 
they were of easy access to the traitors against the 
Government. As for Mr. Jacob Thompson, it was 
found one morning during that session, that the 
Indian Trust Funds, of which he was the custodian, 
had mysteriously disappeared from his safe ; and I 
recollect that upon the morning of the discovery, 
Mr. Jacob Thompson was not to be found in the 



50 



city of Washington, or in the discharge of his 
duties as Secretary of the Interior. It subsequently 
appeared that he had been sent as a special mes- 
senger to North Carolina, to induce that State to 
take action with Mississippi and South Carolina, 
and prepare for secession. As for your Secretary 
of the Navy, he had disposed of the ships of Avar 
belonging to the Government, by sending them to 
distant seas ; and at the time the rebellion actually 
broke out, at the time the Senators and Represen- 
tatives of the Southern States began to take formal 
leave of both Houses of Congress, there was not a 
vessel of war at the command of the Government, 
notwithstanding months of warning had been given. 
And, last and least, there stood the President, hold- 
ing up his hands imploringly, and saying, " You 
know I will not do any thing ; but don't let the 
storm burst until I get away. That is all I ask of 
you." You are told by Lieutenant General Scott, 
that when he urged upon the President the neces- 
sity of sending supplies of ammunition and pro- 
visions to Fort Sumter, Mr. Buchanan replied, 
" I cannot do it at this moment, because the Con- 
federate States have sent their Commissioners here, 
and it would be disrespectful to them to do that 
thing, before they have an audience ! " I have been 
told that he is engaged in writing his history, and 
I have said it was well that it was so, because he 
could not well afford to leave it to an impartial 
hand. I have said that the subject was worthy of 
the historian, and vice versa ; and I have said, also, 
that if he should happen to die before he got it 



51 



ready for the press, I trusted he would leave it to 
his friend, Gov. Floyd, to complete the work. 
But a friend suggested, the other day, that that 
was bad advice, and calculated to injure his heirs, 
because, said he, Floyd would be sure to steal the 
manuscript. (Laughter and applause.) 

I mention these things by way of making some 
answer to those who are constantly objecting that 
our President was slow in getting the country pre- 
pared for war. He came to the Presidency in the 
midst of a city of traitors. Every public office 
was filled to repletion with them. They had been 
the only favored parties under the preceding ad- 
ministration, and no man who was faithful to his 
Government could get a position in the depart- 
ments. Every where they swarmed with traitors ; 
and really, the President elect knew not where 
to turn to find a loyal man on whom he could 
rely. But I think I have said enough upon this 
subject. 

It is said by some that this Government made 
war upon the South. That is not a charge made 
by the rebels ; if it were, the whole civilized world 
would rise up and call it a monstrous calumny. I 
will not attempt to answer it. Any man who 
makes that assertion is either profoundly ignorant, 
or utterly regardless of truth. I will call the 
attention of these gentlemen to a few facts. At 
the time the present President went to Washing- 
ton, to be clothed with the robes of office, what act 
of war had been perpetrated by this Government 
upon the South 1 None, you will all agree. Long 



52 



before that, — nearly one month previous to the 
close of Buchanan's admmistration, — your army 
in Texas, together with the public stores in charge 
of that old traitor, General Twiggs, amounting to 
three millions of dollars, had been surrendered to 
rebels in arms. Numerous acts of war had been 
perpetrated upon the Government of the United 
States, prior to Mr. Lincoln's calling out troops for 
the suppression of the rebellion. Had not the 
public mint and public arms in the city of New 
Orleans been seized 1 Had not other public prop- 
erty been seized throughout the South'? Had not 
a thousand acts of war been perpetrated by the 
South upon the United States Government "? But 
it is useless to make any argument upon this sub- 
ject to any man of intelligence and candor. A 
thousand acts of war, I repeat, had been perpe- 
trated. It was the duty of the President of the 
United States, when members of the House of 
Eepresentatives and Senators were rising in their 
places in Congress, and proclaiming to their fellow- 
citizens and to the world, that although they had 
taken solemn oaths to support the Constitution of 
the United States, and to legislate to the best of 
their skill and ability to serve the interests and 
safety of the United States, they intended to dis- 
regard those oaths, and that they had really prosti- 
tuted the power which their position gave them, to 
the work of tearing down the Government they had 
sworn to uphold; — I say, it was the duty of the 
President, when he heard these Senators and Eep- 
resentatives declare that they no longer owed 



Do 



allegiance to the Government, to arrest such men 
before they left the Capitol. (Applause.) 

But it is urged, also, that Congress has violated 
the Constitution, in providing a law to secure 
the filling up of the wasted ranks of the army 
of the United States. I do not know the pre- 
cise line of argument adopted by those who 
allege that this is an unconstitutional act on the 
part of Congress. All I know is, that it is a law 
of Congress ; and as far as my humble judgment 
allows me to determine, it has been placed upon 
the statute-book by virtue of a direct power con- 
ferred by the Constitution upon Congress. I be- 
lieve the Constitution confers upon Congress the 
power to declare war, and I believe it also gives to 
Congress the power to pass such laws as are neces- 
sary to make that declaration effective. If Con- 
gress has power to declare war, and if, by necessary 
implication, the power to declare war carries with 
it the power to pass all laws needful and proper 
for the purpose of accomplishing the object of the 
war, why may not Congress pass laws providing 
for the recruiting of the army? But these gen- 
tlemen say, they make this objection out of respect 
and veneration for the Constitution of the United 
States ; they do not want to see it infringed. No 
more do I. But if they intend to be bound by the 
Constitution, let us see if the Constitution refers 
the settlement of this question to them, or gives to 
some other tribunal the power to determine so 
grave a question. I believe that the Constitution 
of the United States provides that the Supreme 



I 



54 



Court shall be the arbiter to determine all ques- 
tions arising under the Constitution ; and if these 
gentlemen want the people of Massachusetts to act 
advisedly in the premises, let them make up a case 
and bring the question before that tribunal, and 
have it adjudicated upon. If the act is declared to 
be unconstitutional, they will not be called upon 
to resist it, for the Government will not attempt to 
enforce it. 

But it is said the President ought not to have 
suspended the writ of habeas corpus — that this is 
unconstitutional. Now, I believe the Constitution 
provides that the writ of habeas corpus shall not be 
suspended except in time of war ; and that, I 
believe, is what is called " a negative pregnant with 
an affirmative." It is as if it said, " In time of 
war, the writ of habeas corjyus may be suspended." 
But it is said that here war does not exist, and 
therefore the suspension of the writ here is uncon- 
stitutional. I did not know before that the dream 
of the copperheads out west had been realized, 
and that a new confederacy had been organized, 
with New England left out in the cold. I had 
supposed that Massachusetts was still a part of 
the Union, and realized that the Government 
was at war. I will not argue that question ; but 
how ridiculous is the idea, that while in South 
Carolina it would be proper enough to suspend the 
writ of habeas corpus, it would be improper and 
unconstitutional to suspend it in Massachusetts or 
New York ! The provision was not made in order 
that the Government might deal with traitors with 



00 



arms in their hands. It can deal with them in 
another way. The hosts of" the country have been 
marshaled, and commanders appointed, for the 
purpose of meeting and overcoming the rebels in 
arms. The Government does not need the suspen- 
sion of the writ of habeas corpus for them. Nor 
is it needed in order to deal with the men who 
give aid and comfort to rebels in arms, by act and 
deed, in such manner that they can be brought to 
the bar of a court of justice and convicted and 
punished. There would be no necessity for it, in 
such cases. But, if I understand its purpose, it is 
to enable the Government to lay its strong hand on 
traitors who do not quite enough to enable the 
Government to convict them, but who do a little 
too much to be permitted, at a time like this, to 
run at large for the purpose of poisoning the 
minds of men in the Northern States. (Applause.) 
It does seem to me that these objectors to the 
course of the President ought to bethink them of 
the position in which they are placing themselves. 
They ought to know that the man who can find it 
in his heart to object to every single act of the 
President and Congress, and yet have no complaint 
to make, not a single word of condemnation to 
utter of the course pursued by the rebels, or of 
what the country has been made to suffer on 
account of their treason, will be suspected by his 
neighbors, and ought to be suspected by the Gov- 
ernment. I hold that no man is in danger who 
will take the position that duty demands of him to 
take in this crisis. (Applause.) No man ought 



56 



to hold his peace at a time like this. He ought to 
speak in no equivocal terms, so that all men may- 
know whether he is on the side of the Government, 
or is in heart opposed to it. At this time, it may 
be said of the people of this country, as the old 
Roman senator said on an occasion not dissimilar : 
" Let what each man thinks of the Kepublic be 
written on his forehead." Every man ought to 
make his position known, and if any one will not, 
he cannot complain of his Government for suspect- 
ing him. No man is in danger of having the hand 
of the Government laid upon him, if he takes 
such a position as a loyal heart will prompt him 
to take. (Applause.) 

But I believe there are men at the North who 
really sympathize with Jefferson Davis and his 
government. I have heard of no man in Massachu- 
setts, I believe, making such declarations, but I 
have heard of their being made in adjoining States. 
There are men who say they would rather live 
under Jefferson Davis for their President and under 
the Constitution of the Confederate States, than 
live under Abraham Lincoln as their President and 
under the Constitution of the United States. All 
I have to say to the man who makes that declara- 
tion is, that he ought not to be permitted to go at 
large under the Government of the United States. 
(Applause.) He ought to be compelled to go be- 
yond the lines of our armies, and to take refuge 
among his friends, and those with whom he sym- 
pathizes. (Renewed applause.) If the men who 
make use of such expressions (ignorant men, 



57 



plainly, or they would not use them) had but one 
solitary hour's experience in Eichmond, or any 
other locality in the South, they would be ready to 
cry out, " Let me back into Abraham's bosom, by 
all that is merciful." (Laughter and applause.) I 
cannot conceive, however, how any man who loves 
liberty — loves the flag of his country — loves its 
honor — loves his race — can make use of such 
expressions. These men who sympathize with 
Jefferson Davis say he is a man of gr-eat talents — 
I admit it ; that he is a man of dignified deport- 
ment — I grant it. I am willing to concede that he 
is " as mild a mannered man as ever scuttled a ship 
or cut a throat." (Applause.) But I believe the 
old gentleman below has always been represented 
as of very captivating address and eminently re- 
spectable appearance, especially when clothed in a 
black suit (laughter) ; and it is not surprising that 
Davis should possess some of the characteristics of 
his great prototype, who chose rather to " reign in 
hell than serve in heaven." (Applause.) If there 
is any man in Massachusetts, or elsewhere within 
the compass of the Government of the United 
States, who has enjoyed the protection of its laws 
and its flag, who thinks that Jefferson Davis is a 
character to be honored ; if, in his judgment, he 
is a hero who ought to be crowned, 

" Then bind the wreath the hero's brow to suit, 
Of blasted leaf and death-distilling fruit." 

Go gather the cypress and hemlock, the night-shade 
and the deadly upas — steep them in the tears of 



58 



the widows and orphans, made such by his fiendish 
rebellion against free government — sprinkle them 
with the blood of the slain husbands and fathers — 
let the curse of a great nation, bursting from its 
anguished heart, be breathed upon them — then 
bind them firmly upon his pale and haggard brow, 
there to blister through time and burn through 
eternity ; and palsied be the arm, and withered 
forever, that would stretch forth a friendly hand to 
snatch them thence. (Applause.) Let all who 
are in accord with him come forward and claim 
the meed of praise due to their acts. Let them 
fear no rivalry, here or elsewhere. Neither angels 
in heaven, men on earth, nor fiends in hell, will 
dispute their right to the palm that history will 
award them. Let them have it and enjoy it ; and 
I trust that some of them will live long to feel the 
curse of every honest man and every lover of 
liberty throughout the world. (Loud applause.) 

It seems to me that we ought now to forget all 
past party distinctions, forget all but our country 
and the necessity for its preservation, and not go 
groping about in the dark, or even in the light of 
the noon-day sun, to find trivial objections to the 
course of the President or the administration. We 
must remember that we cannot sever the Gov- 
ernment from its present administration. I know 
the remark is-often made, " You may sustain your 
Government, but in doing that, it is not necessary 
to sustain the administration ; " but I take issue 
with the men who use this argument. I know this 
is a government of the people, but it is not a pure 



59 



democracy, where the people meet in primary 
assemblies, as on this occasion, and determine what 
course the Government is to pursue. It is a con- 
stitutional Republican government. A Democratic 
government, it is true, but you have provided a 
constitution and laws for your own c6ntrol, and 
your government is to be administered through 
agencies of your own providing, and only through 
those agencies can it be administered. President 
Lincoln has been elected for four years ; two years 
of that time have yet to run. Until the expiration 
of that period, he is the only man you can have as 
Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy ; he 
is the only man who can administer the Executive 
department of the Government. Congress is the 
only department of the Government that can sup- 
ply the means and the men, from time to time, to 
carry on the war. You have created the members 
of Congress your agents, under the constitution 
and laws ; and in what manner are you to carry on 
the Government, or sustain it in carrying on the 
war, if you resist the policy of the administration, 
and withdraw your confidence and that of your 
fellow-citizens from it, and constantly oppose what 
they are doing from time to time ? Through these 
agencies only can the affairs of Government be 
conducted, and whether conducted more or less 
wisely is not the question. They may not be pos- 
sessed of all wisdom, and probably are not ; but you 
believe, I hope, that they are in the main honest, 
and are pursuing the course which is, in their 
best judgment, calculated to accomplish the great 



60 



object we all have in view. If so, and you believe 
they are wanting in wisdom, I say it is your duty, 
not to withdraw your confidence and support from 
them, or to induce others to do so, but to give 
them your support. Do you question the wisdom 
of the President '? — give him your counsels and 
encouragement. If he wants more strength, give 
it him ; if he wants more means, supply them. I 
do not mean by this that you are to sustain the 
course of every man who is called to his assistance. 
To-night, or to-morrow, we may arrive at the con- 
clusion that some one of those who surround him 
is not dealing in the kind of counsels to which the 
President ought to listen most favorably ; and if 
we do, it is our duty, in sustaining the Government 
and the administration, to tell him the plain, un- 
varnished truth, as it exists in our own minds. Go 
to him and say, as I will, should I, perchance, ever 
meet him again, " I do believe that it is the popular 
judgment that you ought no longer to retain out of 
employment the men who have given earnest to 
the country that they have the ability and nerve 
and will to work efficiently in this war." I believe 
you have the right to say — what I would to God 
the people would say, at no distant day — " We 
want Fremont's services in the field. (Great cheer- 
ing.) We cannot dispense with Ben. Butler always 
(renewed and tumultuous applause) ; and we want 
a host of others ; and if you could know, as well 
as some of us who have traveled through the 
country what the popular judgment is, we do 
believe you have honesty of purpose enough, that 



61 



you have nerve enough, that you have confidence 
enough in the matured judgment of the people, to 
act in obedience to their wishes." I believe he 
will do it. But to say that we sustain the Gov- 
ernment, while we oppose the administration, or 
all the officers of the Government, is an absurdity. 
The Government cannot be sustained except by 
supporting the administration. Abraham Lincoln 
is at the head of that administration. He is your 
President, and must be while this rebellion lasts ; 
for I trust no one here believes that it will be handed 
over to his successor. 

Let us, then, with a union of hearts and hands 
and purposes, and with all the means we have, 
come to his aid, and give to him freely of men and 
money, listening to no man who says that the people 
of the United States are about being impoverished 
and brought to bankruptcy by the existence of this 
war. Least of all ought this to be said here. I say 
to you, that in comparison with the people of other 
sections of the country, you know not what war 
means. No man here has been deprived of the com- 
forts of life by reason of the existence of this war, 
not many of you even of its luxuries. You have 
here, to the fullness of repletion, all that civilized 
life can give you. You are in the enjoyment of your 
peaceful homes, and I trust it may always be so. 
Ui^ It is true that the public debt has been greatly 
increased, but I heard one of your distinguished 
financiers, who lives in a neighboring city, say that 
it was a great fallacy to suppose that the resources 
of the country were exhausted. The real capital, 



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62 



he said, had not been touched ; it was only the 
surplus proceeds of capital that had found invest- 
ment in the public securities ; and those men 
who talked about the country being on the verge 
of bankruptcy were not conscious of the power of 
this Government, resting, as it does, upon the 
hearts and purses of this great people. I am one 
of those who believe that in this portion of the 
country, where its greatest physical and moral 
power resides, the people have not yet demon- 
strated a tithe of their power ; and I am apt to 
believe that it will not be demonstrated until you 
begin to realize the evils of war in your own 
midst. I am not prepared to say that I desire to 
see a foreign war superadded to the one already 
existing ; but I have not been sensible of the same 
fear in my mind which seems to affect others, in 
view of such a possibility. If England will have 
war with us, then you will feel what war really is, 
and the moral, physical and pecuniary strength of 
this people will be demonstrated, for the first time, 
and it will rise to a height of sublimity that 
neither our own Government nor foreign powers 
have for a moment conceived of (Loud applause.) 
I believe we are able to meet all comers, within 
or without ; and I believe, if we are forced to the 
trial, the sequel will prove it. 

It remains for me now, citizens of Boston, in this, 
the last address that I shall have the honor to deliver 
to any portion of the people of New England, to 
express to you my sense of obligation for the kind- 



63 



ness and sympathy I have everywhere experienced. 
I assure you of my gratitude. Especially do I owe 
to the citizens of Massachusetts a debt of gratitude 
that will be remembered as Jong as I live. I know it 
is not on account of my own merits, but on account 
of the class of suffering loyal men of the South 
whom I represent, that I have been received with 
so much kindness since I came among you, and 
especially on account of the cause I have at heart. 
Should it be my fortune to return once more to the 
bosom of my family — which at present seems quite 
unlikely — it will be a pleasure to me to teach my 
children to understand and appreciate this great 
people. It is my duty now to go to the Govern- 
ment at Washington, once more to appeal to them 
for aid and assistance for my suffering fellow- 
citizens. Failing in that, I shall go South, and tell 
them that, unable to bring succor to them, I have 
returned to take my chance with them, come life 
or death. (Applause.) For this generous wel- 
come, and for your patient attention, I tender you, 
ladies and gentlemen of Boston, my most grateful 
thanks, and bid you farewell. (Loud and pro- 
longed applause.) 




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